Lipstick container with self-contained closure



D; SEIbLER May 20, 1969 LIPSTICK CONTAINER WITH SELF-CONTAINED CLOSURE Filed Oct. 16. 1967 Sheet 012 FIG.2A

FIG. 3A

INVENTQR. Davld Sendler 2 1/ ATTORNEY y 0, 1969 0.55mi. ,445,111

LIPSTICK CONTAINER WITH SELF-CONTAINED CLOSURE Filed Oct. 16. 1967 Sheet 6 of 2 FIG.4 69A A FIG.5 42 I F|G.7 5e 58 6 54 A; r 56 f 4 54 86 42 I 92A,94A 69 as 0 4e C 44 INVENTOR. David Seidler' ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,445,171 LIPSTICK CONTAINER WITH SELF- CONTAINED CLOSURE David Seidler, New York, N.Y. (6910 108th St., Forest Hills, N.Y. 11375) Filed Oct. 16, 1967, Ser. No. 675,393 Int. Cl. A45d 40/06, 40/22 US. Cl. 40159 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A container for a lipstick, or the like, designed for manufacture in plastic, is arranged to propel and extend the lipstick, or the like, through a front opening, to forward or projected position for use, and, in the reverse operation, to retract the lipstick for concealment in the closed container which is provided with two front cover door elements that are movable to a closure position over the front opening of the container when the lipstick is retracted to storage position.

This invention relates to a container for lipsticks and the like.

A primary object of this invention is to provide a lipstick container which may be easily manipulated to project a lipstick out of the container to make it avail able for use, and then to easily retract the lipstick back into the container, while at the same time closing the front end of the container to prevent the admission of dust or dirt into the container that would affect the surface or purity of the lipstick.

Another object of the invention is to provide a lipstick container that may be easily and readily assembled.

Another object of the invention is to provide a plastic container which lends itself to aesthetic efiects by manufacture in different colors.

Generally, the container of this invention comprises an outer cylindrical member within which an inner cylindrical member is supported and held for relative rotary motion, while being restrained against axial motion. A cup is disposed within the inner cylinder to hold one end of the lipstick, and is operated to project or to retract the lipstick. The cup has a side pin, similar to a trunnion, which extends through a longitudinal slot in and along the wall of the inner member and thence into a spiral guide groove along the inner wall surface of the outer member. An actuator snap-fitted to the lower end of the inner cylinder serves to rotate said inner cylinder in either direction to cause the slot edges to drive the cup pin as a follower in the path of the helical groove on the inner surface of the outer cylinder. Thus, depending upon the direction of the rotation of the inner cylinder, the cup is advanced or retracted, and the lipstick correspondingly projected outwardly for use, or retracted and withdrawn into the container as a protective shell.

To protect the container against entry of any dust or dirt when the lipstick is retracted, the front end of the container is provided with an outer dome-shaped cover with a central bore or opening for passage of the lipstick, and with two sliding doors or cover elements, under said dome cover, that are moved to closing position at the end of the retracting stroke of the lipstick, and that are shifted to open position to expose the opening in the cap and to clear the way for the lipstick during forward movement of the lipstick when the lipstick is projected for use.

At the end of the retracting stroke of the lipstick, when the two doors are moved to full closed position, or to full open position, those two doors are snapped into such terminal position by a small dimple on each door snapfitting into a small receiving recess in a surface area on the front part of the inner cylinder. The doors are thus held against casual undesired movement out of full open or out of full closed position, until intentional manual force is applied for desired closing or opening of the doors by manipulation of the container elements.

In order to provide for easy floating adjustment of such doors, they are formed as sections of a spherical shell, and are supported between the inner surface of said dome cover, and an inner spherical section on the front end of the inner cylinder. The floating doors move about a virtual center that is also the virtual center for the outer and inner spherical sections between which the floating doors move.

Conventionally, the use of two such floating doors has introduced a tolerance problem, and a skewing prob- In the prior art, in certain cases, such closure doors have been supported on and actuated by a single pin, and skewing of the floating doors has resulted.

Another object of this invention, therefore, is to provide a cosmetic stick container, of the kind here involved, in which the closure doors are supported and controlled in a way to overcome any skewing tendencies.

In this invention, such skewing tendency is overcome by providing a two-position-support for each door, while maintaining concentric disposition and operation of each door about its virtual center. One position of support serves as the point of application of an actuating force, while the other position of support is a relatively linear region that serves as a free guide with minimum frictional restraining action on the movement of the door.

The construction of the individual elements of the container and the manner in which they are assembled to provide the container of the present invention, are described in more detail in the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal view partially in section and partially in elevation, of the assembled container, with the lipstick cup in fully elevated or advanced position;

FIGS. 2 to 7 are arranged as separate views showing the several elements that enter into the combination that constitute the invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the dome cap;

FIG. 2A is a development of the internal surface of the dome cap of FIG. 2 to show the spiral guide grooves and lost-motion tracks for the two closure doors;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view through one closure door;

FIG. 3A is an elevational view of the underside of the door in FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is a vertical, longitudinal sectional view of the inner cylindrical member;

FIG. 5 is a vertical longitudinal section of the cup for the cosmetic stick;

FIG. 6 is a vertical longitudinal section of the outer cylindrical member;

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal sectional view of the actuating ring for the inner cylindrical member; and

FIG. 8 is an enlargement for clearer showing of the details of the dome cap and door assembly in relation to the outer and the inner cylinders.

As shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings, the lipstick container 10 of this invention comprises a cup 12 that is to support a lipstick 14, and is to move forward or backward in an inner cylindrical member 16 that is to be assembled for rotary motion within an outer cylindrical member 18. When assembled, the cup 12 will be inserted in the inner cylindrical member 16 with a laterally projecting follower pin 20 extending radially outwardly from the cup 12, and through a longitudinal slot 22 in the side 'wall of the inner cylindrical member 16, into a helical guiding groove 24 in the inner wall surface of the outer cylindrical member 18. The details that permit such assembly are shown in the other figures of the drawings.

When assembling the inner cylinder 16 into the outer cylinder 18, they are relatively rotated until the cup pin 20 can enter the top opening 24-a of the helical guiding groove 24 on the inner surface of the outer cylinder 18.

The inner cylindrical member 16 will then be assembled in the outer cylindrical member 18 to snap fit to hold the two cylindrical members 16 and 18 together against undesired axial displacement or separation by a peripheral bead 26 at the end of the inner cylinder 16 that snap fits into an annular groove 28 around the inner surface of the outer cylinder 18. An actuator ring 30 is then snap-coupled and keyed into the inner cylindrical member 16 in order to be able to rotate that inner member 16 in either direction within the outer cylinder 18, to cause the side edge surfaces of slot 22 to act on pin 20 and move cup 12 axially in desired direction, as guided by spiral groove 24.

In order to close the front end of the assembled container 10, two folding spherical sector doors 36 and 38 are provided, which are supported in position by a dome cap 40 in cooperation with a truncated spherical section 42 formed on the front end of the inner cylinder 16.

Referring now to the remaining figures, the construction details of the several component elements of the lipstick container assembled are shown. In order to achieve the final assembly shown in FIG. 1, it will help to consider the elements as they are shown separated in FIGS. 2 to 7.

First, the cup 12, FIG. 5, is axially inserted into the bottom of the inner tube 16, FIG. 4, with the pin 20 of the cup 12 extending into and through the slot 22, which extends to the end of the inner cylinder 16 to permit pin 20 to be inserted. The cup 12 is now free to move along the full length of the slot 22, to achieve forward projection position, or, upon return, to achieve full retracted position toward the lower end of the tube 16.

The next step in the assembly is to insert the inner cylindrical tube 16, containing the cup 12, into the outer cylindrical tube 18. Now certain details of construction of those two tubes may be considered.

The outer tube 18, FIG. 6, is internally recessed at its upper end to provide an annular shoulder or seat 44, that is to serve as a stop or a rest surface for a flange 46 on, and adjacent the upper end of, the inner tube 16, in FIG. 4. The lower end of the outer tube 18 is provided with a shallow peripheral recess 28 on the inner surface at the lower end of the outer tube 18. The purpose of this recess 28 is to receive the bead 26 on the outer peripheral surface of the inner tube 16 at the lower end of that tube 16, as previously mentioned. Since the slot 22 is extended the full length of the tube 16 at the lower end, the bead 26 is, of course, discontinued at the edges of the slot 22. By forming the slot 22 open at its lower end, to permit entry of cup pin 20, the inner tube 16 has sufficient resiliency to permit the tube 16 to be slightly diametrically compressed so the bead 26 will ride down easily as the inner tube 16 is pressed axially downwards into the outer tube 18. When the inner tube 16 is pressed home in the outer tube 18, the flange 46 near the top of the inner tube will rest on its seating shoulder 44 in the outer tube 18, and the head 26 at the lower end of the inner tube 16 will snap into recess 28 at the bottom of the outer tube 18 to snap lock the inner tube 16 into position in the outer tube 18 and thus prevent casual undesired axial displacement of the inner tube 16 and separation of the two tubes 16 and 18. Nevertheless, when it is desired to remove the inner tube 16 from the outer tube 18, a small amount of pressure to overcome the resiliency of the inner tube 16 will be sufficient to press the inner tube 16 outward from the tube 18.

The relative dimensions of the outer diameter of the outer tube are such as to permit free relative rotation of the inner tube within the outer tube 18.

Reference may now be made to a spiral provided on the inner surface of the outer cylinder 18, as shown in FIG. 6. In the sectional view of FIG. 6, the lower portion of the spiral groove 24 is shown. The upper portion has an open inlet port 24A, at the top, to permit cup pin 20 to enter the spiral groove 24 for guidance during axial movement.

The function of the spiral groove 24 is to control the axial movement of the cup 12. The manner in which that is done is as follows. When the inner tube 16 is axially inserted into the outer tube 18, the pin 20 from the side of the cup 12 will be placed to be projecting radially outward through the slot 22 and the pin 20 is then caused to enter the port 24-a at the top end of the helical groove 24 by appropriately turning the inner tube 16 so the open end of the slot 22 will be in alignment with the open port 24-a of the helical groove 24. The pin 20 of the cup 12 will then be positioned at the region that represents the inter-section between the slot 22 and the helical groove 24. Thus when the inner tube 16 is to be assembled into the outer tube 18, it will be necessary to slightly rotate the inner tube 16 to cause the pin 20 of the cap 12 to ride downward in the helical groove 24 to the end of its path in that groove 24. In that position the cup 12 is in its innermost retracted position. Also, the inner sleeve 16 is in its innermost assembled position within tube 18 with the locking bead 26 of the inner tube 16 snapped into position in the positioning and retaining groove 28 near the bottom of the outer tube 18.

Relative turning movement between the inner tube 16 and the outer tube 18 thus axially controls the position of the cup 12 according to the loation of the intersection of the slot 22 and the helical groove 24.

Since the inner tube 16 will be relativelyv enclosed when it is assembled in the outer tube 18, an external actuator will be necessary to rotate the inner tube 16. For that purpose the actuator 30 is provided, and is appropriately shaped to be easily assembled into the inner tube 16 to serve as an actuator therefor.

As shown in FIG. 7, the actuator 30 is shown as provided with and constituting an outer ring 52, a radial hubtype extension 54 with a peripheral bead 56 at the outer end of such extension 54, and an axially extending key 58, all of whose functions will now be described.

The actuator 30 is adapted to be fitted into the lower end of the inner cylinder 16. The bead 56 on the actuator 30 fits into an internal groove 62 in the inner surface of the inner tube 16 in order to snap lock the actuator 30 to that lower end of the inner tube 16. As previously mentioned the slot 22 provides a certain amount of resiliency to the inner tube 16 so that the actuator 30 may be readily and easily inserted without too much pressure. When the bead 56 drops into the groove 62, the actuator 30 is locked to the inner tube 16. The key 58 is of an appropriate width to fit into the slot 22. Consequently, when the actuator 30 is fitted into the lower end of the tube 16, the actuator key 58 is fitted into the slot 22, and the actuator may then be turned, as necessary, so as to turn inner tube 16, and, since the actuator 30 is now held against axial displacement by bead 56 in groove 62, the key 58 serves as an eccentric to rotate the inner tube 16, in

either direction, as desired, for the purpose of controlling the movement and position of the cup 12. The outer diameter of the ring 52 of the actuator 30 may be the same as the outer diameter of the outer cylinder 18, or it may be made of different diameter. Similarly it may be made of the same color as the outer cylinder 18, or it may be made of different color, to provide any desired aesthetic contrast.

The elements of the container thus far described are those which control the positioning of the cup from its forward projected position of use, back to its retracted position of storage and cover. The internal spiral groove in the outer cylinder 18 may be provided with a closed terminus to determine the lowermost or innermost position of the cup 12.

In order to close the container, to prevent the entrance of dust, dirt, or other foreign articles, that would contaminate the working surface of the lipstick, the top front end of the lipstick container is appropriately provided with a dome type cover that closes the container after the lipstick is retracted to stored position. Conversely, the cover is opened when the lipstick container is initially manipulated to project the lipstick to forward or exposed position for use.

Referring again to the drawings, it will be seen that the inner cylinder 16 is provided with the extension 42, formed externally as of truncated spherical shape. The truncated spherical section 42 has a central axial bore 64 that is coextensive with the central bore of the inner cylinder 16, to provide clear passage space for axial forward or backward movement of the lipstick. The outer surface of the spherical section 42 is provided With two longitudinal slots 66 and 68, one of which, for example, the slot 66, is in direct axial alignment with the slot 22 in the body of the cylinder 16. The other external slot 68 is diametrically oppositely disposed on the outer surface of the spherical head section 42.

The function of each of the two slots 66 and 68 is similar to the function of the slot 22. Whereas slot 22 acts on the cup pin 20 to apply a force to move the pin 20 in its spiral groove 24, the slots 66 and 68 apply a force to each associated closure door 36 or 38, previously mentioned. At the upper part of each slot 66 and 68 is a dimple-receiving cavity 69A for receiving a dimple 69 on each cover door 36 and 38 when those doors are moved to closed position, as will be described later.

Each of the two cover doors 36 and 38, respectively, consists of an arcuate spherical body section 70, having an inner elongated actuating key 72, to fit into the associated slot 66 or 68 on spherical head 42, and an outer guide pin 74, to fit into one of two grooves 92 or 94 formed on the inner surface of the dome shaped cap 40. Each cover door 36 and 38 is also provided with a dimple 69 to hold the cover door in terminal position.

When the two cover doors 36 and 38 are seated in position with their respective actuating keys 72 seated in the slot 66 or the slot 68, their outer guide pins 74 will seat in the respective spiral groove sections 92 or 94, in dome cap 40, in FIGS. 2 and 2A.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 2A, the dome cap 40 has a top or front spherical portion 82 with a central co-axial opening or bore 84, and a rear cylindrical portion 86 having a co-axial extension or apron 88 which serves as a pilot element in fitting the dome cap 40 onto the top end of the outer cylinder 18, in assembly.

The inner surface of the dome cap 40, on spherical portion 82, is provided with two short grooves 92 and 94 closed at their respective upper ends, and open at their respective lower ends which lead into and communicate with separate track passages 92-a and 94-a. Those two track passages are disposed annularly, and each occupies part of an inner circle of periphery, as shown in more detail in FIG. 2A. The two track passages provide lostmotion space in which the respective guide pins 74 of the two cover doors may move during portions of the axial motion of the cup, when the cover doors are to be kept out of the path of movement of the lipstick, in either forward projecting, or backward retracting, motion.

When the two cover doors 36 and 38 are closed, their respective front spherical section edges 36A engage as contacting congruent circular arcs. Each cover door is held in such closed position by the relative positions of the inner and the outer cylinders 16 and 18, which have moved pin 74 of each door to extreme upper position. In addition each door is held against causal displacement that could result from mere vibration, by the additional locking action of its dimple 69 fitting into the recess 69A at the end of respective slot 66 or 68. At that time the cup is, of course, at its lowermost position, with the lipstick fully retracted.

When the lipstick is to be projected forward for use, the actuator 30 is rotated to rotate inner cylinder 16. The cup starts moving upward, or forward, and the two doors 36 and 38 are moved downward to open position to expose bore 84 in the dome cover.

Referring again to FIGS. 2 and 2A, the door pins 74 will move downward along spiral sections 92 from the uppermost position in those spiral sections 92 to the related track sections 92A and 94A. During the downward movement of pins 74 in spiral sections 92, the two doors 36 and 38 will be moved quickly away from bore 84 to expose and clear the path for the lipstick. Since further axial movement of the lipstick is required, to move to its extended position of use, continuing rotation of inner cyhnder 16 is necessary. But such continuing rotation will also move the two doors 36 and 38. Lost motion must therefore be provided, and the two tracks 92A and 94A provide the space for such lost-motion movement of the two doors. The two tracks 92A and 94A are formed as annular recesses on the inner surface of, and along the lower edge of, dome 40. Each track has a limiting upper edge as the shoulder 92B or 94B, but open at the bottom, for ease or removal from a forming mold.

However, to provide a limiting lower edge to each track 92A and 94A, to confine each door pin 74 within ts track, the flange 46 just under spherical section 42 of mner cyhnder 16 has been provided. In assembling the dome cover 40 at the upper end of the outer cylinder 18, and over the spherical head section 42 of the inner cylinder 16, the pilot apron '88 of the dome cover fits into the end recess of outer cylinder 18 and fits around and concentrically encircles the flange 46, and seats onto shoulder seat 44 of outer cylinder 18, as shown more clearly in FIG. 8.

In the assembling of the elements of this container, the cover dome cap 30 is suitably secured to the outer sleeve 18 by a dot of cement, or by a short burst of heat from an ultrasonic field.

The invention is not limited to any of the specific details that are shown, since these details primarily are functional and show merely a preferred physical positioning, and therefore various changes may be made in the dimensions, design, arrangement or disposition of the functional elements, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to be secured by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. A cosmetic stick container, comprising a main outer tubular member, having a spiral groove on its inner wall surface;

an inner hollow cylindrical member concentrically disposed within said outer tubular body, and having a longitudinal slot along part of its wall length and extending to its back end;

means for confining said inner member within said outer body to prevent axial translation while permitting relative rotation of said inner member;

actuator means for releasably snap-locking into said 7 inner cylindrical member to serve as an actuator to rotate said inner cylindrical member;

a cup disposed within said inner member to he coaxially reciprocable therein, said cup having a base and a tubular wall to serve as a holder for a lipstick, and said cup having an actuating pin extending radially outward from said wall at a region intermediate the top and the bottom of said cup, and

said pin extending through said longitudinal slot along the inner cylinder and extending into said spiral groove in said outer tubular body, so rotation of said inner cylinder causes its slot edges to push said cup pin along the path of said spiral groove to move said cup axially, forward to project said cosmetic stick out of its container for use, or backwards to retract said cup and stick for covered storage in said container in which said outer tubular member is slightly axially recessed internally at its top or front end to provide an annular seating shoulder, and is slightly radially recessed internally adjacent its bottom or rear end to provide a shallow annular retention groove;

and said inner cylindrical member has an annular flange adjacent its front end, to seat on and against said annular seating shoulder at the front end of said outer tubular member, and said inner cylindrical member also has an annular head at its back end, to seat in said shallow retention groove at the bottom end of said outer tubular member when said annular flange seats on said annular seating shoulder, thereby to snap-lock said inner and outer cylindrical members against causal undesired axial separation while permitting relative rotation between said outer and said inner members.

2. A cosmetic stick container, as in claim 1 in which said inner cylindrical member has an annular groove in its internal wall surface adjacent its back end, alnd terminating at the edges of said longitudinal s t;

and said actuator means includes an outer cylindrical ring having an outer diameter corresponding to the diameter of said outer tubular member, and having a co-axially inwardly extending ring to extend into the back end of said inner cylindrical member, with an annular external bead 0n the end of said co-axially extending ring to fit into said annular groove in the internal well of said inner cylindrical member, thereby to snap-lock said actuator ring to said inner cylindrical member, and said c0- axially extending ring having also a key element to fit into the open end of the longitudinal slot of said inner cylindrical member, whereby said key may serve as an eccentric actuator to rotate said inner cylindrical member to act on the pin on said cup and thereby cause advance movement or return movement of said cup in said inner cylindrical member.

3. A cosmetic stick container, as in claim 2, in which said cup is free floating in said inner cylindrical member and held in position by the interaction of said slot and said spiral groove,

and all of said parts may be assembled and disassembled by direct manual positioning without external devices.

4. A cosmetic stick container, comprising a main outer tubular member, having a spiral groove on its inner wall surface;

an inner hollow cylindrical member concentrically disposed Within said outer tubular body, and having a longitudinal slot along part of its wall length and extending to its back end;

means for confining said inner member within said outer body to prevent axial translation while permitting relative rotation of said inner member;

actuator means for releasably snap-locking into said inner cylindrical member to serve as an actuator to rotate said inner cylindrical member;

a cup disposed within said inner member to be coaxially reciprocable therein, said cup having a base and a tubular wall to serve as a holder for a lipstick, and said cup having an actuating pin extend ing radially outward from said wall at a region intermediate the top and the bottom of said cup, and

said pin extending through said longitudinal slot along the inner cylinder and extending into said spiral groove in said outer tubular body, so rotation of said inner cylinder causes its slot edges to push said cup pin along the path of said spiral groove to move said cup axially, forward to project said cosmetic stick out of its container for use, or backwards to retract said cup and stick for covered storage in said container including a hollow axial extension on said inner cylindrical member, said axial extension having an outer contour surface of truncated spherical form, with two external longitudinally extending grooves on said outer contour surface, one groove being in substantial alignment with said slot in said inner cylindrical member and the other groove being diametrically opposite on said outer contour surface;

a top cap to fit over said truncated spherical section of said axial extension and having an annular surface to seat conformably against the front end edge of said outer cylindrical member,

said cap having an axially extending annular apron to extend internally and fit closely into said front end of said outer cylindrical front end against which the cap seats,

said cap also having an internal contour surface of truncated spherical section, with its internal surface slightly radially outwardly displaced from the outer surface of said spherical section of said axial extension of said inner cylindrical member, and said cap also having two diametrically oppositely disposed spiral path grooves on its internal contour surface;

and two thin floating covers each having its inner and outer surfaces as sections of spherical contour to fit loosely in the space between the inner surface of said cap and the outer contour surface of said spherical section extension, and each cover having an inwardly extending key to ride in one slot in the outer contour surface of said spherical extension, and each said cover having an outwardly extending pin to ride in one spiral groove in said cap to move each of said covers to forward covering and closing position or to retracted open position, according to the direction of rotation of said inner cylindrical member.

5. A cosmetic stick container, as in claim 4, including means for locking the top cap in position on said outer cylindrical member, whereby rotary movement of the actuator ring in one direction at the back end of said container will rotate the inner cylindrical member to move said floating covers to open position and will move said cup and any stick therein to projected position, and rotation of said actuator ring in the opposite direction will rotate the inner cylindrical member in opposite direction to retract the cup and stick carried thereby and move said floating covers to closing and covering position at the front end of said container.

6. A cosmetic stick container, as in claim 5, including means providing a lost-motion path for said pins of said floating covers during a part of the motion of a cosmetic stick in said cup through the center front bore of said front closure cap.

7. A cosmetic lipstick container, as in claim 4, in which each of said spiral path grooves, on the inside surface of said cap continues into a section of annular track on the internal surface of said cap to provide a path 9 10 of lost-motion of said floating covers while said cup 3,007,569 11/1961 Babin 40159 is being moved axially. 1,483,220 2/1924 Foster 40178 8. A cosmetic lipstick container, as in claim 7, in which 1,646,358 10/ 1927 Noble 40178 said outer cylindrical member has an annular internal 1,949,201 2/1934 Friedman 401-108 shoulder at its upper end; 5 2,840,230 6/ 1958 Lerner 401---78 and said inner cylindrical member has an annular peripheral flange with the bottom surface of said flange FOREIGN PATENTS to seat against said shoulder, and the top surface of 1,256,710 2/1961 f said flange to serve as a lower limit edge surface for 257,750 10/1948 swltzerlandsaid lost-motion annular track on the f of Said ace 10 LAWRENCE CHARLES, Primary Examiner.

References Cited Us Cl- X R. UNITED STATES PATENTS 401-103 1,870,941 8/1932 Barendse 401-59 2,443,361 6/1948 Satz et a1. 401-59 15 

